Harry Potter and the Cetra's Secret Disc 1
by Ceara Ivory
Summary: Harry Potter, in the final battle, is unsuspectingly pulled into another world, the world of Gaia, the home of Final Fantasy 7. Here he discovers secrets about the wizarding world, the weapon to defeat Voldemort, and himself.
1. Prologue

Harry Potter and the Cetra's Secret

Written by Chibikan

Prologue

Hogwarts, a once beautiful, peaceful, well-renowned wizarding school, now a mess of a battlefield. Harry was torn apart. He'd just gotten through watching the memories that Professor Snape had given him. His hour was almost up. Voldemort wanted him to come to the forest. He was about to die. He stopped and looked out over the lake. Just a few more minutes, he wanted to enjoy the view of those still waters. As he took those precious moments a sudden instinct overtook him. He needed to be by the lake for this battle. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. He took his wand and cast Sonorus.

"YOU COWARDLY SNAKE! IF YOU WANNA FIGHT ME COME TO THE LAKE!!! WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE WHERE YOU KILL ME!"

He heard laughter in his head and out of the forest stepped the Dark Lord.

"Quite correct, Potter." He raised his wand.

Harry steeled his insides, conscious of the appearance of his friends behind him. They were screaming for his life. But he was prepared, this was necessary he knew. He saw the lips begin to move.

But Voldemort stopped. He was focused on the lake. Something was happening. A large vortex of water was forming. The wild waters foamed and twisted and turned in a water cyclone. It was soon a veritable maelstrom of black water. "What trick is this Potter?" He was sure that Potter had to be doing something, that he had been fooled. But the look on Potter's face said it all. He was just as confused and shocked as he was.

The cyclone moved, on it's own seemingly. Voldemort prepared for the cyclone to come after him, after all, he was attacking Hogwarts, surely the waterfolk were seeking to protect their home. But it didn't come after him after all.

Harry was unprepared for the vortex to descend upon him and lift him in it's force. He screamed as the twister pulled back and pulled him beneath the churning waters.

AN: Hmmm, what is this you may ask. It is a Harry Potter/Final Fantasy 7 crossover.


	2. Chapter 1

Harry Potter and the Cetra's Secret

Chapter One

Harry could only scream as the vortex pulled him into some sort of tunnel. The tunnel flashed with silver light and Harry could hear a soft song as if soothing him. The tunnel didn't twist or turn but was straightforward. After what seemed like hours, the tunnel ended, dumping in deep under what must have been the ocean, as he could taste salt water on his tongue as he had the sense to close his mouth quickly. He looked up and saw the surface not too far up. He should be able to make it. So Harry swam until his head broke the surface. Quickly he also noted that he wasn't too far from land. He swam to shore, taking a brief moment to look around. He saw a large city in the distance, in one direction, and a small town in the other. When he heard footsteps, he became aware of two finely polished shoes and the tail of a white coat just before passing out from exhaustion.

He awoke, his vision swimming, to a large bright light shining in his eyes. Where were his glasses? He sat up and pawed around.

"Are you looking for these?" came a kind voice as he felt someone hand him his glasses. He put them on and immediately his vision cleared. He looked at the direction of the voice. It was a girl, wearing a lot of pink. "Are you alright?" she asked him.

Harry looked around. They were inside some sort of glass cylinder. "Where are we?" He asked her.

Another voice answered to his left. "You are in the Shinra Headquarters, Research Department." Harry turned. The voice who answered him was a male with long black hair with grease enough to rival Professor Snape's, round wire glasses, and a long white jacket. "You were brought here after I found you on the seashore. Quite an entrance you made, I must say. Now, tell me, how did you get here?"

Somehow Harry knew better than to tell him. "Who are you? And why do you want to know?"

"I, young man, am Professor Simon Hojo, head researcher of Shinra Inc. Never mind how you got here, I saw. And that only leaves one conclusion. You, sir, are an Ancient. And I intend to get all the information out of you that I can. And then, we'll move on to my experiments."

Harry's eyes narrowed, experiments? With what? "Excuse me, Ancient? I'm only 17."

Hojo smirked. "Feign ignorance all you like. But clearly you come from the Promised Land, I demand you tell me where it is and how to get in!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Harry told him. He wanted to pull his wand, but something told him that the man would simply find fascination in it and think he was right. "I'm not an Ancient, I don't come from the Promised Land. I don't know anything!"

Hojo sneered. "You'll want to tell me, because I promise you, you'll never get out of there. You're at my mercy boy." He thought. "Maybe you'll be more willing to talk after you've been in there for a little while." He stomped off.

Harry looked at Aeris. "Is he for real?" he pulled out his wand. "I take it you're his prisoner too."

Aeris nodded. "My name is Aeris, Aeris Gainsborough. I am an ancient. That's why I'm here. Hojo is obsessed with finding the Promised Land. What is that?" She asked pointing to his wand.

"Oh this…" he supposed she was safe, after all they were both in the same predicament. "It's my wand. I'm a wizard. I was in the middle of fighting an evil dark wizard when I was brought here by some sort of magical vortex. What is this place anyway?"

Aeris explained. "Shinra Inc. is a very powerful business organization. But they're also the government. They have a lot of influence and get almost anything they want. And if they are refused, they simply take you out one way or another. I was just brought here last night. They kidnapped me and intend to use me for some sick experiment to try and find out more about my race."

Harry's sighed. "Sounds a lot like the Ministry of Magic. Or even the Death Eaters." He aimed his wand at the lock on the door. "Alohamora!" Nothing happened. "What?"

Aeris cocked her eyebrows. "What was that supposed to do?"

"Unlock the door. So we could escape." Harry looked at her. "I have to get out of here and find a way back home. My friends are in danger." He pounded on the glass.

Aeris shook her head. "Don't bother, that's reinforced glass. It's impervious to most things, especially magic. I've tried. Many times."

Harry went wide-eyed. "Are you a witch?"

She shook her head. "No, like I said earlier, I'm an ancient. But most everyone here can do magic, as long as they have materia."

"Materia?"

Aeris nodded. "Materia is a crystallized form of the energy substance called Mako. Mako is the power source used here. It provides electricity." She finished, although it was apparent that she knew more than she was saying.

Harry looked awed. He was in a world where EVERYONE could do magic. Not just wizards and witches, everyone. There was technically no such thing as a muggle. "So, what do we do?"

Aeris shrugged. "We wait. Some friends of mine will be coming to rescue me. You can come with us."

Sure enough, just a few hours passed before they heard the tell tale signs of battle on the floors below them. This made Harry wonder something.

"Ummm, how many floors does this place have?" he asked.

"70 floors in all. But floors 65 on up are purely for Shinra officials only, well, them, and their 'guests'" she answered, indicating them when she said guests. "But my friends will be able to get up here no problem. They're an infamous terrorist group called Avalanche."

Harry thought inwardly. "Another Order of the Phoenix, no doubt."

It wasn't long after that the irritating professor reentered. Harry kept thinking that Professor Snape was twenty times a better professor than this guy. At least he didn't capture human specimens.

"So, Specimen B, are you ready to answer my questions?" Hojo asked, a cocky sneer on his face that Harry was just dying to Crucio off.

Harry simply refused to say anything, he did NOT like being called a specimen.

Hojo simply took his silence to be a challenge. "Very well, onto the experiments. Bring in Specimen C."

Harry saw that Aeris was grinning. He discreetly turned his gaze in the direction of her own.

"HOJO!" shouted a spiky blonde man. In his hand he held a large sword. "Let them go!"

Hojo turned. "And just what do we have here?"

"Give Aeris back to us." demanded a tall brunette. She stood in a kind of fighting stance. Harry gulped and turned his eyes, flushing at the amount of skin her clothing revealed.

Hojo shrugged. "Sorry, no can do. You see, I am about to enter into a complex series of experimentations." As he spoke the middle of the cell seemed to disappear, but it was really just a lift being lowered into the bottom chamber. It rose again moments later, with a large red lion-beast with a flaming tail.

"You can't do that, Aeris is a human being!" The woman protested.

The last figure, a tall bulky man with some sort of weapon grafted onto his left arm, stepped up. "Fuck this, let them go you bastard, or else…" he aimed the weapon at Hojo.

Harry watched as the sight of the barrel in his face didn't even seem to faze the scientist. Hojo merely smirked. "Are you going to shoot me? I think not. The equipment is very complex, delicate you see, with me who would run it?"

The question made sense, Harry realized. Suddenly the lion-creature turned it's attention to Aeris. Harry got between them. He was fighting the urge to raise his wand. He just couldn't let this madman know what he really was. And he didn't want to hurt the creature.

The dark skinned man turned and aimed the weapon at the door. Or more specifically the code box on the side of the door.

"Aeris, step out of the way!" called the blonde.

The weapon released a rapid-fire round right at the code box. The protective mechanisms overloaded and Hojo could only scream, "My precious specimens," as the door slid open with ease.

Harry noted that the cat had turned to face the opening. As soon as it was possible, the lion launched itself at Hojo, knocking him to the ground. The way was open. Harry helped Aeris step down from the cell, before he too exited.

"CLOUD!" she cried out, hugging the blonde gratefully.

But the joyful reunion was short-lived when the lift began rising once more. Hojo freed himself from the lion-like thing's hold. "You'll never conquer this specimen." he turned and ran off in the opposite direction, possibly to sound the alarm for intruders.

Harry peered down at the rising monster and shouted. "WHAT IS THAT THING!?"

Cloud and his two companions noticed him for the first time. "Who are you?" Cloud asked.

The lion spoke before Harry could answer. "Now is not the time for introductions, I'll help you with this creature, he's a tough one."

Cloud turned to harry. "Can you fight?" he asked.

Harry nodded. He knew some spells. "Yeah, I guess." Although, for some reason, he suddenly found himself craving the feel of Godric's Sword in his hand.

Cloud at his two companions. "Barret, Tifa, I'm trusting you to get Aeris out of here."

As soon as Barret and Tifa were gone with Aeris, they entered the fray. Harry was shocked at how well Cloud wielded his sword. He could only use his wand. But it would do.

"INCENDIO!!" But it wouldn't work. "What?"

The lion looked at him. "What spell are you attempting, child." He seemed to sense that Harry was different.

"The fire spell." he answered, frantic for an answer as to why his magic wouldn't work. Did he use the wrong wand movement?

"Try simply saying 'Fire'." the lion instructed.

Harry shrugged and tried again. "FIRE!" Flames shot triumphantly from the tip of his wand. He wondered if all spells worked in this way. He turned to Cloud who was now using a Bolt spell. He decided to test it. "BOLT!" Again the spell succeeded.

Many spells and attacks and potions later the monster was defeated. Harry felt himself grow stronger. It was an exhilarating feeling. He flexed his fingers as a blue-colored vial was put in front of him. He look up at Cloud. "What's this?"

"It's an ether." Cloud explained. "It heals magic energy. After all those spells, you probably need it."

Harry thought about it than shook his head. "Thanks, but I feel fine."

The lion cocked an eyebrow and did something odd. "Hmmm, his mana is still at eighty percent. Save that ether for when it's lower. But that is simply amazing."

Cloud nodded and stowed the ether away in his pouch for later use. "What are your names."

"I'm Harry Potter." Harry said the name as a test to see that he was indeed in a new world and not just like one thousand years in the future or something. "I'm a wizard."

Cloud passed the test when he simply nodded and answered. "Cloud Strife, Mercenary, currently working with Avalanche."

The lion looked at both and stated. "Hojo called me Red XIII, a name of no importance to me whatsoever, call me what you wish."

Cloud nodded. "Well enough pleasantries, we have to go, Aeris and the others will meet us outside." He began to lead the way when he thought of something. He pulled Harry to the side. "Is that your melee weapon too?"

Harry was confused. "Melee weapon?"

Red clarified. "A physical weapon, what you use when you want to preserve mana points."

Harry shrugged. "I don't have one. All I have is my magic." That should be enough right?

Cloud put a hand to his chin. "We'll have to fix that. You can't rely solely on magic, or you'll be killed by monsters that are invulnerable, or worse, healed by magic."

Harry hadn't considered that possibility. He supposed this world had those types of monsters too. Hagrid would love this place. "What do you suggest?"

Cloud assessed Harry's form. "Spread your arms out." he ordered, remembering how he'd been outfitted for his own weapon. "Turn around." Cloud considered for a brief moment. "Hmmm, something long range, a pistol or bow. Here," he pulled a handgun he'd stolen from his pocket. "use this until we can find you something better."

They made their way down the stairs of the sixty-seventh floor, moving onto the sixty-sixth floor. They were almost immediately pulled into a battle with two grunts.

"Now's a good time to try out that sidearm I gave you." Cloud told Harry who had instinctually pulled out his wand. "Save your magic for the big ones."

Harry put away his wand and withdrew the gun. "What do I do?" he asked.

Red deflected a grunt attack and answered. "Cock the gun first." Harry did so, "Now aim carefully. Finally use the trigger to fire."

Harry fired the weapon as instructed and down went the first grunt. "I killed him!" he wanted to throw up. Killing a monster was one thing, trying to kill Voldemort was one thing, but killing an actual PERSON was something altogether different. "I killed him!"

Cloud took down the last grunt. "Better him than you. And any other way, it would have been you," he explained, trying to comfort Harry. He knew from the way Harry was acting that he had most likely never been in a battle like this before. "But, hey, you did good with gun. Was that your first time?"

Harry nodded. "I just did what I was told."

They continued on their way and made it to the elevators with no further incident. Cloud went to push the button when two men entered behind them. Both wore navy blue suits. One had long black hair and a mole on his forehead. The other was bald and abnormally tall.

"Up please." instructed the one with black hair. Something told Harry that these two were bad news.

AN: And here's chapter 1. Hope it was long enough. And I hope I got the characterizations right.


End file.
